BDA: GDS Revenue Grant Scheme only one part of the solution

A recently announced 2018/19 HSCB Revenue Grant Scheme mirrored on last year’s scheme will offer practice level grants, with some additional transformation funding for dental x-ray film digital image converters for practices without digital radiography capability.

Richard Graham, chair of BDA NI’s Dental Practice Committee, said, “It would be churlish not to acknowledge this revenue grant scheme for general practice. However, the reality is that this falls considerably short at a time when £7.7m underspend has been reallocated away from the 2018/19 GDS budget.

“At a non-contract meeting on December 3, BDA presented a paper to HSCB and Department of Health officials evidencing the falling income of practice owners and associates over the past eight years. That paper included a series of asks, one of which was a repeat of last year’s Revenue Grant Scheme.

“BDA will continue to influence for a broad range of measures to be brought forward that can meaningfully address the inadequate fees on offer for providing Health Service dentistry.”